Diane Meyer Simon

Diane Irene Meyer graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Butler University, in 1968, on a four-year scholarship. During the spring 1968, her senior year, ironically Diane cut an evening Shakespeare class in order to attend a Robert F. Kennedy rally at an inner city park in Indianapolis. The large crowd waited for hours in the unadorned park to finally see and hear Robert F. Kennedy make the chilling announcement that Dr. Martin Luther King had been assassinated. Some years later, Diane spoke of that dreadful day in 1968, crediting the experience and the words of Bobby Kennedy as the turning point in her life's ambition. The day following Martin Luther King's assassination, Diane took a leave of absence from Butler University. She began working for the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy Presidential Road Show, as a traveling press/media assistant to the late Dick Drayne. This allowed Diane to be on the road daily with Kennedy, along with national and international Press/Media though out the campaign. In retrospect, following the strength of her convictions and the dynamics of her grounded emotions, this event lead Diane from a life in the small Amish community of Nappanee Indiana, to national and global realms of public service. Fortunately, the Kennedy staff urged her to work for the most honest, decent, and wise leader, US Senator Birch Bayh. Senator Birch Bayh was running for re-election against the formidable William Ruckelshaus in 1968. Diane continued serving Senator Birch Bayh for twelve years. Diane operated in almost every aspect of the US Senate staff work, spent some time in graduate school until becoming Indiana Administrator of Birch Bayh's office. During this time, Diane Meyer married N. Stuart Grauel who had become Deputy Secretary of State to her friend Larry Conrad. When Senator Bayh was not running for Senate or President, she would take leave to help Conrad and other Democratic Presidential Candidates, always returning to Senator Birch Bayh's office. Her marriage ended in 1976. In 1981, Diane Meyer married Herbert Simon, becoming Diane Meyer Simon, political activist, social catalyst, wife and stepmother of two teenagers. Soon, Diane and Herb became the proud parents of three, two daughters and one son; all the while, maintaining her political and social commitments and beginning a business career. Diane has founded several companies involving environmental consulting and design. Diane has organized countless benefit fundraisers for State and National Democratic candidates. She has anonymously donated food, clothing, education, housing, and adopted families, providing overall safety and care for many single-parent women and their children. Struggles with which Diane identifies, as she and her mother experienced homelessness when she was young. She left an affluent childhood when she was almost five years old, her mother & she left to escape the abuse of her brilliant, but emotionally broken down father. Diane and her mother were forced to live with relatives for five years. Diane was an only child, born to a French father who was a teacher, an Air Force Pilot and medical doctor and a French-Swiss mother who was both a teacher and a nurse. Diane has devoted her life to numerous organizations and businesses spanning Indiana, where she was Indianapolis Woman of the Year, and California, where she moved in 1989. Diane Irene Meyer Simon is Founder, President Emerita and Past Chair of Global Green USA. Diane founded Global Green USA (GG USA) following a Moscow Board Meeting of Green Cross International (GCI), August 1993, with the Honorable Mikhail Gorbachev, President. There, GCI Founder and President Mikhail Gorbachev personally enlisted her to organize a US affiliate and become a Member of the GCI Honorary Board. Since then, Diane has committed herself to personally spearheading the GG USA agenda and molding a message of international environmental responsibility for an American audience. As President of Global Green USA, Diane brought to fruition a political career as staffer, organizer, administrator, fundraiser and strategist. Over the years spanning 1993 to the present Diane has remained the driving force in representing an agenda and a vision for Global Green USA and Green Cross International. Today, Diane Irene Meyer Simon primarily lives in Montecito, California and occasionally in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she maintains her second home. Her marriage ended in 2000. She shares her homes with her three children, Sarah Elisabeth, Rachel Mariam, and Asher Benjamin Meyer Simon.